Because I don’t want to spam the ideas section, I would like to voice my opinion and experience with Alias here. Please see don't regard this as an affront to all the work put into Alias, but rather as means to discuss the software to potentially improve it. So feel free to comment (and disagree !).
Amongst all the programs I have used, Alias is by far the most mouse centred for command input. This puts users at a higher risk of developing RSI related injuries. In general, I think that a good UI reduces mouse movement, avoids repetitive input through a hybrid between keyboard shortcuts and mouse clicks. As a rule of thumb, I prefer short clicks over longer clicks & drags, prefer hotkeys over consecutive mouse flicks in marking menus or clicks on icons for activation and prefer to use the least number of modifiers to be pressed down to activate a command, all to reduce muscle strain and thereby alleviating RSI related issues for end-users.
From my experience with Alias I have compiled a list of ideas provided some examples with other recommendations, Note that I have a CAD background (hence my preferences in the “Tools” chapter and am still new to Alias. I hope this could be of use anyways!
Tools
- In general, there is an insufficient number of available hotkeys to use for command & viewport operations for an easily accessible and memorisable setup. This is because (almost) all operations (including selection) requires their own hotkeys and few commands have nested clutch key or mouse options, because those are all used universally. Part of this can be alleviated with hotkey sets per workflow (see the idea here, third post).
Mapping a 1/3/5/7 degree CV curve & EP curve to the keyboard requires 8 shortcuts, which means you cannot use the numeric keys for other shortcuts. Or vice versa views (top/front/left/right view, etc. & perspective/camera) require an additional 8 keys to map, in short, all of this adds up quickly (and requires more concessions than a Command line (Alias) input combined with keyboard shortcuts (non-single hotkeys) , because they are richer in combinations, they provide more easily reachable and memorisable keymaps (see idea here).- Rhino has hotkeys in which commands can be nested through macros, for instance press f5 to create a new CPlane (Construction plane), then press W (+Spacebar) to align it to the world, P (+Spacebar) for 3 Point input, or U/D for Undo/Redo CPlane. Yet, you could map ctrl+shift+f5 to reset the CPlane to the default location or ctrl+f5 to undo Cplane. All of the nested commands would require tools in Alias and would flood the Palette.
- For shortcuts, nested commands allows C1/3/5/7 to input a curve with degree 1/3/5/7 and S1/2 for Sweep with 1 or 2 rails, simple and efficient.
- Alias feels static due to the need to switch between tools, especially because selection is a tool rather than the default LMB and clutch key action. Besides, reserving ctrl+alt for snaps and shift+alt for navigation is in my opinion restricting more intuitive use (read industry standard behaviour seen in 3ds Max, Rhino, Autocad, Revit, Blender). I would personally favour selection (clutch keys + LMB) over snaps, since each command requires a selection and only some require a change of snaps.
- Additionally, I would minimise the required keys for navigation in the viewport. I don’t see the need to hold shift+alt for viewport navigation, wouldn’t using shift (or alt for Maya users) suffice? Orthographic views (incl. the history viewer) require panning, which I prefer to do with MMB, others prefer to switch pan and orbit around and pan with a modifier pressed down.
- Alias currently does not differentiate between a short click and click and drag. Most of the interface is built around dragging, whereas the same result can be obtained to two short clicks. I prefer the Revit/ Rhino/ Autocad move, where you click a point to move the objects from and click on a destination point. Meanwhile, object snaps and constraints are applied from menus and/ or using hotkeys. This avoids muscle strain from holding down buttons, while aiding precision since you don’t have to hold your mouse button while moving, with the added benefit of additional snap options (e.g. Tangential or Perpendicular which requires keypoint curves to achieve). Moreover, this does not even involve adjusting the pivot.
- To maintain Alias’ mouse button (XYZ) paradigm, the mouse button which is used to click where the object(s) are moved from could determine the axis constraint. The objects would then move to where the mouse hovers in which another click confirms the final location.
- In blender, moving actually only requires a press to confirm. Here, I show that it too allows for constraining movement, but then by using X,Y, Z keys on the keyboard or Alt+Z for the XY plane (these are not displayed by the screencast keys software unfortunately). And by pressing control, you can snap to vertices, this really frees up mouse movement. It’s different, yet intuitive, just to show an alternative solution, not necessarily the best.
- Selections should have a transform gizmo display option to allow moving objects on selection without switching tools.
- Rather than transforming in terms of X, Y, Z distance, it would be nice to enter an overall distance and then click somewhere to confirm the direction.
- When selecting, most software deselect automatically when initiating a new selection. I find that the manual deselection is both conflicting in terms of muscle memory and in terms of speed. I see so many marking menu usage in tutorials just to select/deselect in tutorials, its non-productive. I propose there to be a selection setting that deselects everything prior to a new box selection called “Select picked only”, which is basically the default in every other program.
- Clicking/ tapping on dropdown/option toggles/menus is easier on the muscles than holding down buttons only to be released at the desired option. Blender, for instance, allows users to do both press and hold or click twice. So far, Alias is the only program that does not allow for clicking twice throughout all the dropdown/options toggles/menus.
- For 3d sketching & drafting curves, I find Fusion 360/ Inventor’s way of doing this the most intuitive:
- Allow spacebar to bypass tool menu input based on selection input. If I, for instance, select one generation curve or rail in the “Monorail Gen I Surface” tool and press space, the tool should change its settings from 2 rails/ generation curves to 1 instead. Basically, the number of selected items should be the tool setting when I press space to confirm my selection as long as the command line asks for another input. This way, you won’t have to tick the box in the menu.
- Some tools open their menu, some don’t when using hotkeys. How can one use the Grid Presets Tool if it doesn’t open the menu upon entering the hotkey? Some tools (Monorail Gen I Surface) are inconsistent in opening the tool menu. I am not sure why at the moment. Perhaps add an Option to always open a tool’s menu in the hotkey editor
- In 3D views, it may be helpful to add an option to transform relative to view. Rather than accidentally confusing the axial orientation, wouldn't it make sense to always move relative to the closes axis/ plane option? This entails, just like orthographic views, that LMB moves freely across the closest plane (XZ/ YZ/ XY, etc. ) MMB moves in the closest horizontal direction and RMB in the closest vertical direction.
- 3Dconnexion devices certified: lock horizon is a very useful feature that I use in 3ds Max, Rhino, Revit and Blender and miss in Alias.
- Moreover, the 3dconnexion driver’s default Alias commands are not working.
- Add an option to change comma/ dot input, this way, the numeric keys’ dot can be used rather than a comma to input values in the command line.
Missing commands?
- Under Display properties, there are commands to turn on/off CV/Hull display, but there is no toggle for the active object, which is helpful since it would only be a single keypress. Also the naming of these commands is rather non-descriptive: “Display all, on/ off” does not refer to CV/Hull specifically.
- There is no isolate object toggle (like “Alt+Q” in 3ds Max ), I would prefer there to be a toggle to isolate and zoom to the isolated objects. It hides unselected objects and zooms into the selected. Conversely, it unhides unselected and zooms to the objects’ extent to exit isolation mode.
UI
- Rhino like object snaps (with checkbox), a way to input these by hotkey and to solo one or multiple snaps by clicking on a snap with a modifier key pressed down.
- Transform tools: when nothing is selected, the tool should be able to perform a selection first
- In 3ds Max, right clicking on an input will either reset it to 0 or to its default setting, this is quite useful to quickly cancel out certain input values.
- Allow for horizontal scrolling with the mouse wheel of the layers bar
- I find it easier to have eye icons in the object lister for visibility (like Photoshop & Sketchbook pro use for layers or 3ds Max & Fusion 360 for objects) rather than right clicking each object to make it visible/invisible. This quickly becomes cumbersome with multiple objects (with shortcuts this still pertains to unhiding objects).
- Some commands note input options in the command line (e.g. select mentions LMB toggle, MMB add, RMB unpick), whereas others don’t (e.g. shift click to select multiple curves to skin or in the Curvature Comb, LMB scale and MMB to increase/decrease density). Please show these options for all tools to provide more feedback to the user in terms of command options, so these are not ‘hidden.’
Learning
- Those coming from Fusion, Inventor, Autocad or Revit would benefit from having the same tool icons in the UI as the aforementioned programs. In that regard, renaming “Skin” to “Loft” and “Monorail Gen I Surface” to “Sweep” might make sense to reduce the learning curve.
- It would also help if the History visualiser had like Fusion 360’s icons.
- A searchbox (or command line input) that allows you to search for both custom and default commands would be helpful. Fusion 360's toolbox is shown here:
Here are a few things I haven’t found (yet):
- Is there a hotkeyable tool to disable/ hide all curvature combs?
- Is there a hotkeyable tool to select all visible objects (ctrl+a)?
- Is the “Curve Snap options” dialog hotkeyable so you can open it near the mouse cursor?
- Is the degree/span dialog box hotkeyable to open along the mouse cursor and/or can press a hotkey to jump to the input box? Since these values are entered in the numpad anyways, it might as well be remapped to one of the numpad keys.
With such brilliant math at its foundation to accomplish class-A surfacing, one can only dream of a UI that is a little more user friendly and intuitive.
